Frances Fitzgerald
Ceist:122 Ms F. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Health if he will develop job-sharing within health boards and hospitals; and, if so, if this will include training posts.
Written Answers. - Job Sharing.
A job-sharing scheme was introduced in the health services in 1985. The scheme provides that all categories of staff serving in a full-time permanent capacity who have satisfactorily completed their probation are eligible to apply for job sharing. The granting of job sharing arrangements in respect of a particular post or category of post is however a matter for the individual employing authority and subject to the exigencies of the service.
It should also be noted that the scheme allows for the employing authority, where there is no partner available within a health agency to complement a person who wishes to job share, to recruit a person to fill the other half of the job. In certain circumstances, full-time posts may be filled by the recruitment of two job shares.
A measure of the increasing success of the scheme is shown by the fact that there were 3,248 persons employed in a job sharing capacity in the health services at the end of 1991. This represents an increase of more than a 1,000 over the comparable figure for the end of 1989.
I am committed to encouraging health agencies to allow the scheme to be used to the fullest possible extent. In this regard my Department is undertaking a review of the scheme with a view to seeing what further steps can be taken to expand it. The question of job sharing being made available to staff employed in a training capacity who are not covered by the scheme will be considered in this context.